


One Step Closer To Disaster

by LdyBastet



Series: Red Pineapple Romance [4]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-25 22:02:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14986535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LdyBastet/pseuds/LdyBastet
Summary: Byakuya knows Renji has more than a work-related interest in him. With that knowledge and the upper hand it gives him, he decides to set a trap, like a cat playing with its prey before dealing the final blow.





	One Step Closer To Disaster

**Author's Note:**

> One of my old Bleach fics, finally getting it up on the archive.
> 
> **Disclaimer:** The boys belong to Kubo Tite. I'm just borrowing them, having them do things the original creator probably never thought of.

Byakuya looked up at the 6th Division third seat who was standing, immobile and barely breathing, on the other side of his desk. "And in one hour, send Lieutenant Abarai to get me. I'm going to the bath house now."

"Yes, sir!"

"Tell him it's important."

"Yes, sir! In one hour, sir!"

Byakuya sighed and dismissed his subordinate with a flick of his hand. 

When he'd read through and signed the last of the documents he'd been working on, he placed the ones that were supposed to be archived in a neat pile on Renji's desk, and the ones that were supposed to be returned or sent off to the next official in the outbox. Byakuya let his gaze linger on Renji's desk for a moment, then he smiled, as if he'd just thought of something very amusing, and left the office.

**

Renji hurried down the street in a half-run. He had no idea why he'd been sent to fetch Byakuya, but the shinigami who'd asked him had looked a little nervous and had insisted that Renji gave Kuchiki-Taichou the message. Renji couldn't really blame him, though; Byakuya could be more than a little intimidating at times. Most times, in fact.

He turned the corner, and barely managed to avoid a collision with two shinigami he vaguely recognised from 4th Division. Arriving at his destination, Renji paused and took a deep breath. Bath house, he thought; that meant Byakuya was taking a bath, something people usually did naked... Byakuya naked... Renji exhaled slowly and pushed the door open.

It was cool and comfortable inside, a little dark. It was also eerily silent at this time of day, only the occasional straggler on his day off potentially using it this late... or this early. An hour or two later and it would be a different story; a few hours earlier, the same. This was the time _in between_ , and even Renji's footsteps sounded wrong and out of place.

Renji felt awkward, walking towards the captains' changing room, and cleared his throat. "Kuchiki-Taichou?" he called. 

There was no reply.

The door swung open silently, and he peeked inside into a short corridor, feeling very much like an intruder. "Kuchiki-Taichou?" Renji stepped inside when there was still no reply. He wondered if perhaps Byakuya was still in the pool, and the thought made him feel even more uncomfortable. He really didn't want to come face to face with Byakuya without clothes. He just knew that he wouldn't be able to keep his gaze from wandering... not when he'd spent the first moments of consciousness that morning guiltily fantasising about Byakuya. He shook the thoughts off and crept further inside, another three paces, and then he could see around the corner into the room proper. 

What he noticed first was that Byakuya was getting dressed. What he noticed after that was that Byakuya was a traditionalist and was wearing traditional underwear. No modern briefs or boxers for the head of the Kuchiki clan... and he was facing away from the door, which meant that Renji got a very good look of his captain's bare buttocks. It didn't get better (or rather, it did get better, much better than Renji had ever hoped) when Byakuya leaned forward to pick up his kosode from the bench in front of him.

Renji could feel the heat on his cheeks and did the only thing he could do - he bowed and cleared his throat. "My apologies, Kuchiki-Taichou, sorry to interrupt. You're needed back at the office, I was told. Something important's come up."

"Ah. Thank you."

Renji straightened up and turned to leave.

"Stay."

Renji stopped. "Taichou?"

"I'd like to have a few words with you." 

Renji nodded. 

"Face to face," Byakuya said, and Renji turned around slowly.

He tried to keep his gaze above Byakuya's shoulders, but he found that it took a lot of effort. His eyes were continuously tempted to explore the increasingly scarce naked skin of his captain. It was as if his brain told his eyes to take the chance now when it was offered, because it might never come back. Sadly, Renji agreed with his brain about that, but he still couldn't be that rude, just to feed his fantasies.

"I have received some interesting new information regarding the break-in at my office," Byakuya said. "This information points to the culprit being one of the ryoka."

"Why is that?" Renji tried to sound unconcerned, but he was beginning to get worried again. He'd thought Byakuya had let the matter go when the box was empty and thrown away and nothing more had been said about it. It seemed like he'd been terribly wrong.

"Because apparently that chocolate can only be bought in the real world. It would also explain what Kurosaki was doing in my office only days after the box made its appearance."

Renji's first thought was that he should point out that it didn't mean it was one of the kids from Karakura Town who'd done it -- after all, shinigami visited the human world all the time -- but then he realised it could implicate himself and thought better of it. "Really? Then I'll have to question them."

"Oh, there's no need," Byakuya said calmly and secured his hakama around his hips. "Yoruichi volunteered to ask them all discreetly of their whereabouts on the date in question."

"I can be discreet too," Renji mumbled.

"... and find out what motives they might have had."

Renji felt his stomach sink. He was going to be found out. The noose was tightening around his neck -- he could feel it already. Orihime was going to deny any interest in Kuchiki Byakuya, and after that, there were only the boys left to ask... After Yoruichi had found out that none of them had either motive or opportunity, who was left? Renji clearly had had the opportunity... but motive? Maybe he was safe as long as he denied having one? No one knew he was interested in Byakuya in that way.

"Renji? You look deep in thought," Byakuya said quietly as he passed Renji on his way out, and Renji jumped.

Byakuya was far too close for comfort, just like that day in the office, when he'd backed Renji up against the wall... But the discomfort wasn't actually unpleasant, and Renji blushed and looked away when he felt a dangerous kind of heat gather in his abdomen. "I was just wondering which of them it could be," he explained when he'd recovered slightly and they had left the bath house.

Byakuya gave Renji a searching look. "It would be the girl, wouldn't it? Do you have any reason to believe it would be one of the boys, unless they broke in on her behalf?"

Renji cursed silently. Awakening Byakuya's suspicions was not what he'd wanted. He'd been too careless, but perhaps he could turn his mistake into a chance to find out what Byakuya felt, if he could only phrase the question right. "No, Taichou. Of course not. Just-- in case one of them, um, likes men..." He tried again, "I mean, Ishida looks a little gay."

Byakuya nodded. "Yes, some men do prefer men, so it's not impossible."

"Taichou?" Renji asked after a while. "Would you be offended if it was Kurosaki or Ishida who gave you the gift?"

"Of course I would," Byakuya replied without a trace of emotion on his face, and Renji swallowed. "Ishida is a Quincy and Kurosaki is annoying and opportunistic. He has no business pretending to be a shinigami. He should wait until he's dead and has attended the academy. Besides, they are both far too young to know what they're doing or what they're getting themselves into."

It wasn't until Byakuya had stepped into his office and closed the door behind him that Renji realised that Byakuya never said he would be offended because they were male. He stared at the closed door a few moments, but it gave him no answers, and Renji left, not knowing if he should be worried or hopeful.


End file.
